News

Analysts from Gartner and IDC say that PC sales dropped about 8.45 percent in the third quarter of 2012, the most precipitous drop in PC sales since 2001. And both firms agree on the cause, too: The market is preparing for the launch of Microsoft’s ambitious new Windows 8....More

A US appeals court ruled that Motorola Mobility cannot enforce an injunction in Germany that could have prevented Microsoft from selling some products, including Windows and the Xbox 360, in that country....More

The US Department of Justice responded to criticisms of its antitrust suit against Apple and the five biggest book publishers, in which it accuses them of colluding to raise the price of ebooks and illegally harm competitors such as Amazon....More

Last year, tech analysts from Gartner, IDC, and other firms were roundly ridiculed when they predicted that Microsoft’s Windows Phone OS would surpass Apple’s iPhone by 2016. But this year, IDC is at it again....More

An often irreverent look at this week's other news, including HP's startling decision to actually keep its dominant PC business, Microsoft (pretty much) completes the deployment of Windows Phone 7.5, Windows Phone "Apollo" will not be shipping by mid-2012, Samsung smartphones outsell the iPhone by a wide margin, some good news for Netflix amid a sea of discontent, RIM delays software update for a tablet no one uses, and Nintendo slashes forecast as demand dries up for yesterday's video game machines....More

Apple announced another stunning financial quarter Tuesday, with a record quarterly net profit of $7.31 billion on record quarterly revenue of $28.57 billion. The consumer electronics giant credited its recent entry into China for pushing it over the top, but it's equally likely that a delay in the next-generation iPhone was responsible: Apple sold a whopping 20 million iPhones in a quarter that is usually the weakest for that device....More

The UK’s Daily Mail has a wide ranging interview with Bill Gates, which is actually much rarer than you may believe. With recent misguided nostalgia for the Bill Gates years at Microsoft and a fanciful if equally misguided belief that the company would be better off today if he seized control of the company again, I figured it might be interesting to note the tech-related bits of the interview. (A lot of it involves Gates’ more recent—and, by the way, more important—philanthropic work. On whether Bill G’s kids have iPads or other Apple devices: “They have the Windows equivalent. They have a Zune music player, which is a great Windows portable player. They are not deprived children.” Will he ever return to helm Microsoft? “No. I’m part-time involved. But this is my job now ... My full-time work for the rest of my life is this foundation.” On his continued interest in technology: “he next big thing is definitely speech and voice recognition. You’ll be able to touch that board or speak to it and get your message to colleagues around the world. Screens are cheap.” He has his own Twitter account and Facebook page, although “ had a problem with Facebook, because the friend requests got out of hand” I know that feeling, as I’m “fixing” my own Facebook issue right now. I can’t imagine what that’s like for Gates. About his legacy: “That’s the stupidest idea I’ve ever heard!” Which is sort of a Bill Gates compliment, actually. “Legacy is a stupid thing! I don’t want a legacy. If people look and see that childhood deaths dropped from nine million a year to four million because of our investment, then wow! I liken what I’m doing now to my old job. I worked with a lot of smart people; some things went well, some didn’t go so well. But when you see how what we did ended up empowering people, it’s a very cool thing.” “What I’m doing now involves understanding maths, risk-taking. The first half of my life was good preparation for the second half...More

Intel executives this week disclosed some new information about Windows 8, revealing that Microsoft's next desktop OS will ship in multiple versions, each aimed at different chipsets and usage scenarios. The revelations quickly reignited tensions between the companies, with Microsoft denying Intel's claims....More

What I Use

Like many, I was hoping to see a new Lumia flagship before the end of 2014, and while I was pleasantly surprised in some ways by both the Lumia 735 and 830, neither offers the level of performance or best-in-market camera quality I had come to expected from Microsoft/Nokia's high-end devices. So I pulled the trigger on an unlocked Windows Phone flagship that will hopefully take me through at least the first half of this year. Or until Microsoft gets off its low-end fixation and satisfies the needs of its biggest fans....More

It's been a while since the last What I Use, but there haven't been many major changes since late last year: Surface Pro 3 has become my go-to travel companion, I've added a third cellphone line for testing Windows Phone, Android and iPhone side-by-side, and have rotated through some new tablets and other devices. We've also switched from FIOS to Comcast and added to our set-top box collection....More